Mariana is a senior project officer at the IPC-IG. Previously, she was the coordinator of the Observatory for the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean at the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). She was also responsible for the creation of the Centre of Studies on Information and Communication Technologies at the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, which from 2004 to 2008 became a reference in the production of indicators and statistics on the availability and use of the Internet in the country.

Mariana holds a PhD in Sciences of Communications from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, where she specialised in the impact of ICT on the socio-economic development of low-income communities.